Sunday, July 15, 2018

If you frequent our website, you know we did rather extensive coverage of 2017 Topps Transcendent Collection, but the most viewed page was our Transcendent Card Tracker. To gather information for the Tracker I got in contact with some of the collectors who were buying cases, heard their stories about collecting and their appreciation for the release. As I became more familiar with these collectors and this set, I started to understand the attraction. I also grew to appreciate these high end collectors who were so generous with their time and their willingness to share information.

Granted, Transcendent is a release that, per case, is out of range for the vast majority of collectors. But there were plenty of opportunities for most collectors to pick up some of these cards within their price range, either through the 50+ group breaks or buying individual cards on the secondary market. Here are the cards I have obtained from the set.

Each one of these were autographs I needed for other Micro Collecting projects I’ll share with you soon. For now I want to point out something I noticed about the photo selections for these cards.

Let’s start with Cal Ripken Jr.

I recognized this photo right away. I bought tons of rack packs back in 1986, in part because they included an exclusive set of Glossy All-Star cards. Here is Ripken’s card from that set.

Here is the photo match.

Because I couldn’t make it to the VIP party in Atlanta with Hank Aaron, I picked up this auto card of his from the party.

Once again, a recognizable photo. Here is Aaron’s 1972 Topps card.

Here is the photo match.

At this point you may be questioning why I bothered to write about the photo selection in this set. Let’s take a look at the Ichiro card.

I should point out a difference between this photo and the photos for the prior cards. Most modern day photography is purchased through photo services such as Getty Images and AP Images.

Ichiro giving a tip of his helmet indicated to me that, most likely, something significant happened when this picture was taken. I did a google image search for “Ichiro tips helmet” and got what seemed to be an exact match. It was Ichiro’s 3000th MLB hit.

The photo credit was David Zalubowski with AP PHOTO, but something was off. I checked Getty Images and found a nearly identical photo taken by Dustin Bradford.

That was a perfect match for the card.

I thought that was a very cool moment to capture and started exploring the other photos.

As it turns out, the Piazza photo is from his first day with the Mets.

The Jeter photo is from his last game at Yankee Stadium, in the aftermath of hitting the walk off RBI single.

All of these are cool moments to have autographed, but I’ve saved the best for last.

This photo is of Mariano Rivera. It was taken during the 79th MLB All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium. I could tell that from the patch on his cap.

That game took place July 15, 2008, exactly 10 years ago, today. And while the game extended well into the next day, as it went 4 hours and 50 minutes, Rivera’s time on the mound was for the last out of the 9th inning and the entire 10th inning. Both of those innings ended in double plays, so this photo could be from either of those innings. More importantly, his time on the mound was complete before midnight rolled around.

Let me give you a closer look at this card and remember, the photo for this card was taken on July 15th, 2008.

How about if I put it this way, the photo was taken on 7/15. When I saw this card, I knew I had to have it.

So that’s my micro collection of Transcendent cards. but these cards also work themselves into two other micro collections that I will go into depth about in another post.